DISRESPECTING Jules Verne

I recently remarked to a friend that Jules Verne's "adventures" tend to be rather anticlimatic.

I have, of course, only three of their number to reference. Around the World in Eighty Days (henceforth 80 Days), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (henceforth 20000), and Journey to the Centre of the Earth (henceforth Journey).

Of 20000, the narrative is so much less plot-driven, so much more character-driven. Very unlike the archetypical adventure novel. The entire premise exhausts itself within the first few chapters. The primary mystery of the "narwhal" that had been destroying ships is solved, revealed to be the mechanical marvel of Captain Nemo's submarine. What remains to be discovered is the Captain's motive for attacking surface vessels, but not only are mentions of this scarce for much of the novel, it is almost completely overshadowed by Professor Aronnax's tedious descriptions of the machinery and ocean fauna, especially the _lists_. There's only so long the 'fascinating' surroundings and mechanisms of the submarine can keep a reader occupied.

Not only that, the object of the adventure is (feel free to argue with me on this) ridiculously opaque! What is Aronnax even doing? He's admiring the scenery, not trying to do anything to solve the situation. There is no obvious CONFLICT, or at least it isn't the main point of the novel; the sci-fi elements are. The introductory note might say "their true adventure begins when they find themselves aboard a curious vessel, the Nautilus," but in reality, that is also where the adventurousness _ends_. The reader is only reading an account of an eventful vacation, from that point.

Journey isn't much better. Certainly more plot-driven, but the characters, even the narrator (first person actional participant to boot), are so flat... it's literally like the eponymous journey didn't affect them at all. And what kind of ending was that? Not only did they not even achieve their goal, their escape from underground was by the oh-so-genius device of deus ex machina. And then they arbitrarily became famous.

80 Days was much better, though. I did read it some years ago though, so I don't remember much about it. Certainly, there was a much more defined goal, which was reached at the end of the story. There were continuous obstacles, which were overcome. It was exciting. But despite that, as I can't really comment on the events of the adventure, I think I have to say they weren't all that memorable.

"I guess you could say that science fiction was more defined by H.G. Wells than Jules Verne." - my friend.